“It is almost a given that 8 will be the first number of the new minimum wage“, he stated the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security, Panos Tsakloglouspeaking on “Parapolitical 90.1 FM”.

As he said, a procedure has been instituted, which is also valid in many other European countries, in which the social partners submit documented opinions. Afterwards, there is cooperation with the scientific bodies, who will submit a conclusion to the Minister of Labour, Domna Michailidou, who will make a recommendation to the cabinet, where the final decision will be made.

To a question about the insured who are at the stage of retirement, but have debts, Mr. Tsakloglou answered: “It must be understood by everyone that the payment of social security contributions is not a voluntary process. Otherwise, pensions cannot be paid. We have increased the debt limit to EFKA for the payment of a pension, in order to make it easier for those with debts under 30,000 euros. This measure only concerns the self-employed, freelancers and farmers and not employees, to whom the pension is normally paid, regardless of whether the employer has not paid the corresponding contributions.

For these cases, we have therefore increased the debt limit to EFKA from 20,000 euros to 30,000 euros, with a higher withholding mechanism until the debt reaches 20,000 euros, and then the normal settlement process is followed in 60 installments ».

For those who have settled debts and appear uninsured on the EFKA platform, the Deputy Minister of Labor noted that, indeed, there seems to be such a problem. “Many have cleared their debts, but there is likely to be a very small amount unpaid and that was why EFKA was showing them as uninsurable.

In all probability we will go to an arrangement similar to the one we have for insurance, but also tax awareness, that is, below a certain amount, even if there is debt, insurance capacity will be provided.

If someone currently settles or pays off their debts, this will appear on their EFKA account from next month. This is why they appear as uninsured, even though they have paid off or settled their debts. Then, the person concerned should visit an EFKA branch, without an appointment, with the bank’s payment document, in order to obtain insurance capacity from that moment or, otherwise, enter the EFKA platform to submit the corresponding forms. However, in this case there is a gap of two working days” explained Mr. Tsakloglou.